Calves!

This topic has 22 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 2 months ago by Oxhill.

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August 13, 2012 at 5:52 pm #43995
Andy Carson
Moderator
I got back from a trip to NY last last night. It was a great trip meeting people and talking oxen. Andy Van Ord went with me and he picked up several devon calves. I got 3 calves from Threshold farm. It turned out they still had the 5 they had initially told me about, but 2 were clearly not ones I wanted. One was older and a little wild, and one was only 3 weeks old and didn’t quite have a mate. I pick up three that were all around 3 months old. Two are a set of twins, but I wouldn’t have guessed they were twins. One of the twins is smaller than the other but, the general consensus is that he is close enough to be fed up to match his twin if this is the pair I choose to work with. The bigger twin matches another calf right now and both seem to have a good attitude. Hanna and Hugh are very friendly and extremely hospitable people with alot of interesting ideas that they are very open to sharing and beautiful animals, trees, crops, etc. These calves are half milking devon, and the other half is 5/8 ayrshire and 3/8 milking shorthorn, wich makes these calves 50% Milking Devon, 31% Ayrshire, and 19% Milking Shorthorn. I think this is a great mix, as i have generally had good experiences with crossbred animals, especially purposeful crosbreds of somewhat similar breeds.
This is George, he is the bigger twin

This is Freddie, he is the smaller twin.

This is Bilbo, he is the single calf

Here’s a pic of them all together, although they are not posing very well…

I like these boys alot, which is good because I am going to be working with them for a long time!
August 13, 2012 at 7:55 pm #74714
Tim Harrigan
Participant
Very good looking calves. Cool!
August 13, 2012 at 8:43 pm #74711
dominiquer60
Moderator
Oh they are a handsome lot, I am so glad that lead worked out so well, it was meant to be! I am glad that you still had the pick of the litter too. Best of luck with them all and have fun, they don’t stay that small forever 🙂
August 14, 2012 at 1:12 am #74718
Andy Carson
Moderator
thanks for the compliments. I am glad it worked out too. Thanks again for sharing the contact, Erika.
August 14, 2012 at 12:47 pm #74724
Kevin Cunningham
Participant
Great looking calves you got there. I really have enjoyed raising steers from calves. It is a lot of work but it has leveled out some this summer which is good because the farm has me going non stop. Now you need a little 4 or 5 inch yoke to start training the little guys.
August 14, 2012 at 6:16 pm #74719
Andy Carson
Moderator
I did a little lead training with these calves last night. The single calf, Bilbo, was the easier to work with, followed very closely by the smaller twin, Freddie. The bigger twin, George, was the more resistant to leading and when he went foward, he ran like crazy. He had a hard time relaxing. He was also significantly more awkward than the other two getting into and out of the trailer and fell down a couple times. It is far far too early to make any descisions, but I am glad I got 3 so I can pick by favorite two. If I had gotten two, I would have picked George for sure as he is the twin of one calf, and matches the other calf right now. Again, it’s too early to say for sure, but if this continues George might be my beefer based solely on temperment. I am keeping an open mind for now…
August 15, 2012 at 5:33 am #74708
near horse
Participant
How come when I saw the pictures I heard the song ” Oh I like big butts …” in the background? Seriously, those guys have soe healthy muscling going on – fore and aft. The Holsteins we have Salt, Pepper, Scooter and Stripe all look like the “98 pound weaklings” compared to your steers. Best of luck. Be consistent and persistent and keep us posted on their progress w/ pics of course. Thanks for posting, Andy.
August 15, 2012 at 12:59 pm #74715
Tim Harrigan
Participant
I agree, those are stout calves. Geoff, maybe you always hear that song in the background?:D
August 15, 2012 at 1:20 pm #74720
Andy Carson
Moderator
They had some adolescent bulls in a seperate group that they took us to see with the same breeding. I was in love with the look of these boys. Not tall, but very very stout. To my eyes, a lot of the devon was coming out. Andy V noted several differences, which would definately be apparent to someone who is used to looking at purebred Devons a lot. The height and color seems to be strongly influenced by the Devon breeding, although they do seem to be a little taller and not quite as red as most of the purebred devons we looked at the next day. The Van Ords think the thick muscling probably comes from the Shorthorn blood, which makes sense, but I was suprized to see that they are more thickly muscled than the purebred Devons. I think I am more used to seeing “modern” dairy type shorthorns (they look like holsteins with a different color to me) and I am guessing they found an old style thick milking shorthorn. The Ayrshire horns seem to be extremely heritable, and all thier animals had these. One of the older bulls had this type of horns too, which looked kinda funny and out of place, as they were kinda thin and tall in a typical Ayrshire shape. Andy V said it looked kinda feminine, and I have to agree. Not that it really matters to me, but it was funny to see feminine horns on such a masculine bull. I will be curious what the little nubs on these boys turn into, but am expecting some height. I think I will probably castrate a little on the later side, because I liked the look of thier bulls so much and they seemed to have good temperments.
PS. they are probably also stout because they had free access to thier mommas milk half the day (they were separated at night), and not taken completely off milk until I took them at 3 months old. That’s a lot of milk! The downside is they don’t know what grain is, and I am struggling to get them to eat much grain. They are eating tons of grass, though, and chewing their cuds, so I figure they will come around. thier condition is good and thought thier manure is a little loose, it is the right color and smell. Still, I haven’t gotten more that a half cup into any of them at a time. The thinnest calf eats the best, but again it’s not much. If anyone has any tips on how to make the grain more tempting, please share.
PPS. The calves are still obsessed with finding thier mommas, and got it into thier heads that my oxen team might either be their mommas or maybe be with their mommas. They wanted to be with them really really badly. I thought I would see what would happen so put them in wiht the older team. All the calves ran over to them as fast as they could screaming “Momma, Momma, Momma!!!” When they got close, one of my older team lowered his head and took a couple steps towards them. “Not the Momma, not the Momma, not the Momma!!!” they are screamed as they scattered. It was very funny, and I put them back in thier own pasture for a while.
August 15, 2012 at 3:04 pm #74712
dominiquer60
Moderator
They sure do look smooth, but a good muscled smooth. My friend that bought a springing heifer from Threshold had a bull calf, she was bred to a shorthorn/ayrshire bull and that was the fattest calf and skinniest cow that I have ever seen. She tied the calf up so that the mother would not be constantly bothered by him, but she overfed him anyway coming to him instead. The cow calf bond is a tough one to break. The farm that I had lived on in NY had beefers, and they weaned them at a year old, they still bellowed from the barn and the mothers with new calves at side would bellow from the pasture. I say give them a couple weeks and most of the mommas boy nonsense with fade away. As to the grain, I was lucky that my 6 week olds had been given a small amount of pellets, but when I tried a sweet feed calf starter, because that is what my local feed store carried, it was very much rejected. It took a few days but if I offered it to them right after their milk they would start to play and mouth it some, and eventually they started to eat it. When we switched back to pellets they took great interest and eat well to this day. Since yours didn’t have grain then and don’t get milk now this doesn’t help you at all, so all I can say is keep trying, a 1/2 cup sounds like a good place to start. I mixed kelp meal and selenium salt in with my feed and they seemed to like that taste. Also yogurt can help keep their guts from getting too sour, on grain may be a temptation as well. I don’t have much experience to offer except what little I have. Best of Luck
August 15, 2012 at 3:10 pm #74713
Tim Harrigan
Participant
Sounds great, Andy. I would not be in any hurry to get them on grain, particularly if they have free access to good pasture. You may want to consider grain going into winter as a way to increase protein content depending upon the hay you have, but I don’t see any need to feed them like a beef steer or try to speed them up. If you want to get them to accept grain more readily you might want to try a sweet grain mix, something with molasses for instance. Or donuts, they like donuts. Apple fritters.
Will will eat a cup or two of grain in the winter, won’t touch it when he is on pasture.
August 15, 2012 at 4:02 pm #74717
Andy Carson
Moderator
That’s good to know. I bought some calf starter for them, as some feeding guidelines say this is the stage they are in and I thought they might need something higher in protein to ease their transition from milk to pasture. It sounds like this isn’t a big deal, as they are enjoying the pasture. Still, I like to have a way to make thier time with me a positive experience, and thought giving them a grain treat would be a nice way of making it positive. They also like neck rubs, so perhaps the grain isn’t needed for that either. It sure is nice to have years to figure all this out before they need to do heavy work.
August 15, 2012 at 4:20 pm #74716
Tim Harrigan
Participant
Yes, they like the contact, and it is a good time to teach them to let you pick their feet up and help you a little with that. A little grain won’t hurt them, but I probably would not give more than 1/2 cup or so with them on good pasture. It is easier to get into trouble feeding them too hard than a little slower.
August 15, 2012 at 5:26 pm #74709
near horse
Participant
Granted, we start off w/ day olds and feed them on milk replacer but pretty quickly (say at +/- 2 weeks) they’re looking for more than the 2x feeding of ~4L MR they get. So we put some calf starter in a feeder free-choice as well as throwing in a flake of grass hay. Sooner or later they figure out that this stuff is food too but it varies with the individual calves.
Three months old just means they’ve got a little more “momma time” to get over. Just keep an eye out for sucking on each others penis sheath. The sucking drive is pretty strong. We have had some luck using a bucket that uses a more challenging nipple that makes them really work and spend more time sucking (called MilkBar). It seemed to slow the sucking on each other.
As I recall, the development of the rumen papillae is almost directly related to feed. Exposure to forages stimulates growth that is needed to digest them …..
Andy – your “momma, momma” story reminded me of an old childhood favorite book of mine “Are You My Mother?” where a baby bird thinks all kinds of different things are his momma. Fun Fun Fun.
Tim – I’ve wanted to try the apple fritter idea but everytime I get to the calf pen, there’s no more fritters in my box. Maybe that explains the “big butts” song in my head! 😀
August 15, 2012 at 7:29 pm #74728
Oxhill
Participant
Thank you for the ride Andy. I had a great time! I think you have a lot of potential in those three. I have been giving ours 14% textured grain and they are eating very well. Of course they came pre weaned. Some people might think breeding Devon and Ayrshire is like throwing gas on a fire but their cattle are well behaved and have a good temperament from what I could tell. They also all had a good thick build without looking beefy. I think Andy took the best of their ox crop this year but if any one is looking in the area next year I wouldn’t hesitate to look Threshold Farms up. They are also great hosts and very passionate and excited about their farm!
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